Visible Literacy and Gingerbread Houses

I just love December!  It is so magical, and I am finding that this is the same feeling my kindergartners feel!  I can just feel the energy, magic, and excitement bouncing off of the walls each day.

Visible Literacy

About a month ago, I had the privilege of hearing Regie Routman speak on classroom literacy.  This was a great workshop which led to many great discussions on literacy with many other educators from my district.  One of the main points I walked away with was in response to the question: "Will visitors instantly know that your school (or classroom) focuses on literacy?"  And, honestly, as hard as it was to answer no, that was what I had to say.  Don't get me wrong, we focus on literacy all day long, but it isn't always visible.  We make cute crafts to go along with guided and shared readings, we celebrate writing- but it is almost like it is a secret among the members of my classroom.  Hence a goal was created.  Anytime a project is done- we now have an additional literacy component to be displayed with our work. So far, this has been a shared writing experience that explains our projects. It is has been a great way to bring more meaning to fun craft projects!

This cute project was from First Grade and Fabulous.  We studied realism and fantasy while reading Olivia.  

My student teacher reviewed and taught sequence by using Pet the Cat.  She found this fun craftivity from Mrs. Bremer's Class blog.

 

I just LOVE how these two projects turned out- so cute!  I am very big on having my students completely create their own craft.  They have gotten so good at problem solving by being in charge of their own artwork.

Gingerbread Houses

On Friday, we celebrated Grandparent's day by making gingerbread houses.  This was quite the event. For several weeks, we have been planning this event.  Each student could have up to 4 grandparents (or other relatives) come help them make a house.  Students supplied graham crackers, frosting, candy, and ENERGY.  And, even though teaching on Friday was rather challenging, it was all worth it.

For an entire hour my room was filled with smiles, concentration, laughter, holiday music, and the strong scent of sugar.  Take a quick look at some of the masterpieces created by my kiddos and their special visitors.

Can you say MESSY???  But, oh so cute!

Happy Holidays!

Kindness Elves

Kindness is a social skill that I teach in my classroom.  What does it look like, sound like, and how can we achieve it.  This year my class took part in a Wrinkled Heart lesson.  Take a look at these two sites to learn about it more thoroughly.

Bully prevention

Wrinkled Heart with Chrysanthemum

I did use the story of Chrysanthemum to help my children understand the concept.  This lesson did have a great impact with many of the kiddos.  However, kindness is not something that should just be discussed in one day and then forgotten.  Shortly after this lesson, I purchased 2 locker rugs to use in my classroom.  (It really does baffle me as to why anyone would ever need a rug in his/her locker.  But they definitely work well in my room!)  We designated these our Peace Rugs.  As a class demonstration two students modeled how to use these rugs.  When a child's heart is wrinkled they may ask their friend to chat on the peace rug.  By using I feel statements, they then can share what upset them.  So far, these rugs have really helped some of the kiddos take the initiative to solve their own small problems.  Our next step with these rugs will be determining the appropriate time to use them.  (I have a few kiddos who are so sneaky!  They use the rugs during class time to just chat with their friends.)

In my district, Elf on the Shelf is a tradition in some of the classrooms.  Honestly, he is a super cute idea, but I really feel that he is more of an at home deal.  When I found an idea for a Kindness Elf from The Imagination Tree blog, I knew that this was the type of elf I could incorporate into my classroom.  The one thing missing, however, was a book.  I am a sucker for introducing concepts with a book.  So, I wrote one!  

Teaching in the Tongrass created these adorable kindness elf clip art that I used in my story!  They worked perfectly.  Included with the book (there is a story that features a girl elf, and one that features a boy elf) are task cards that could be left each morning when your students get to school.  Most of them are easy tasks like smiling at others or using manners.  Some of them involve a little more work- baking cookies or drawing a picture.  Take a look at a few of the pictures and then visit my store if you would like more information!

I found my elf from the ornament section in Target.  And, naturally I went all out and purchased a fairy door from Hobby Lobby.  (But, I think I will save painting it for another year.)

Enjoy!

I'm Still Here!

Boy!  It has been a while.  I am sure that those of you who have switched grades know that sometimes it takes a little bit to feel in control again!

I would love to post right now and share all of these wonderful and amazing ideas that I have been incorporating into my class- but, alas, right now I am just figuring things out!  I do know one thing though... I love kindergarten!

Here are my top 5 I just started teaching kindergarten must haves:

1. Dr. Jean's Tootsie Roll attention grabber.  I will be completely honest, that I probably use this one way too much during the day.  But, it is easy to remember and the kiddos are still responding to it!

Click here for Dr. Jean's Tootsie Roll! 


2. The Learning Station's You Tube channel for much needed Brain Breaks.  There are many times we just need to move.  These songs are great!  The children really enjoy them and are 100% percent engaged!  For most of my kiddos, it is just what they need to get back into learning.

Our favorite song so far is the Body Boogie song.  Especially when we get to do the air guitar!

Body Boogie

3. Google Drive.  This has been a lifesaver in sharing lesson plans with my team.  I can access our plans anywhere.  And if you know my organizational skills (ahem. lack there of), you would also know that I can never find my printed version when I need it.  So, thank you Google Drive!

4. The book, Teaching with Love and Logic.  I have read and utilized the strategies in this book before.  But I was overdue for a refresher course.  When I remember this language, my day is much smoother!

5. Puppets.  Let's be real, having a puppet teach math to you is MUCH better than having your teacher teach it.  I don't get it- but, hey, at least we all can now compare numbers!


Thanks for stopping by! 

Classroom Reveal... Finally!

Kindergarten has started!  And, on this beautiful Saturday morning I slept in a little longer than normal. (Well, actually a LOT longer.  9:00 AM.  Oops!) Now, with coffee in hand, I am bound and determined to catch up in the blogging world!  I am absolutely loved my first week as a Kinder teacher.  There are a few challenges I am figuring out in my transition from 3rd grade.  But, I cannot wait to do so!

I promised classroom pictures a few weeks ago.  And, that never happened.  But, better late than never!

My classroom library is my favorite place in our room.  I still need a wider selection of books, but for now we will be ok!  In my third grade room, I had a huge window that overlooked the playground.  My new room no longer has this luxury.  :(  Not wanting to let my curtains go to waste I created a makeshift window.  As the year progresses, I intend to change up the seasons.  Fall is coming up quick, I better get started on making leaves!

I mentioned in an earlier post that creating felt board pieces became a stress reliever in college.  This past summer, I decided that my classroom needed a felt board, too! 

Throughout the year, my students and I create the posters that go on our bulletin boards together.  That is why, so many of my boards are blank.  They will be filled in no time!

I am so thankful that my classroom has a bathroom.  This little turtle helps my students know when it is ok to enter the bathroom.  They just flip the sign to Stop or Go.  

Because I am positive that you see it, ignore the crookedness of my schedule.  I define myself as being a perfectionist, but by the time I got to posting the schedule I needed to let something go.  When I realized it was crooked, I had to force myself to be ok with it.

I have many more pictures to share, but I am going to save a few for later as they could have a whole post to themselves.  Check back soon!

Classroom Sneak Peak

The countdown to the school year has begun.  It has been a busy week!  I have spent a great deal of time in my classroom- working as fast as I can to get it done.  And it is definitely getting closer, but not enough for a big reveal.  I do not think you would want to see it quite yet anyways.  My floor is covered with border, bulletin paper, and random scraps. ;)

However, there is one area I have almost completed: my library!  I always try to make my library the focal point of the room, so I spend quite a bit of time there.  You might notice that my bookshelf looks a little bare.  I wasn't left books for a classroom library; therefore, it is going to be my first priority to buy more books once the room is done.  Hopefully, then, I will be able to put up some labels and better organize the shelves!

Ta da!  Here it is!

My room doesn't have a window this year, but I just COULD NOT let my cute curtains go to waste so I tried to "recreate" outside through a handmade window.  It is very cartoon like, but I think it works.  I am still going to add flowers and cover the brown wood door with paper.

Check back again next week for more reveal pictures!

Kindergarten froggies and Summer craziness!

Oofta!  This summer has just flown by.  And, just like every other teacher, I am getting ready for the start of the new school year.  

Like the past several years, I taught summer school again.  I have to say that I am sure blessed to be able to teach one of the incoming kindergarten classes.  I got to know several kiddos that will be in my class come fall.  It also helped me begin my transition from 3rd grade down to kindergarten.  We all had a blast this summer!

Our three week session was divided into 3 learning adventures: space, ocean, and rainforest.  We sang songs, practiced alphabet and number skills, talked about expectations, made crafts, and more importantly- got to know one another.  During our rainforest study, the favorite song was a cute song video from YouTube.  It is called Walking In the Jungle.  Check it out!  It was a great movement break.

Another favorite craft  were these cute paper plate frogs.  It took 2 days to accomplish this task.  

Day 1 we looked at tree frog pictures and learned some pretty cool facts about them.  Then the kiddos chose a paint color and painted their paper plate.  

Day 2 we added all of the important details: legs, eyes, tongue.  My students needed to match the same color body with the frog's legs.  After that, it was up to them to use crayon to add dots or other fun features that they saw in the rainforest frog images.

They turned out so incredibly cute; I just had to share!

I love the one who turned the tongue into a nose!

I have been super busy getting my classroom ready.  Cross your fingers that I can finish this week because, I bought a house this week!  I want to make sure that I can get things fixed up in there before the start of the school year!

Wish me luck!

Back to School Sale

I'm having a SALE!

All of my products will be 20% off!  Please take a look around and enjoy.  

I also linked up with Blog Hoppin!  Hop on over to their page for many more wonderful products, blogs, and teachers!

Felt characters and Word Wall Heading FREEBIE!

Well, hello!  It has been a long time since I have posted, I guess summer festivities have been getting in the way.  My summer has been busy with tutoring the sweetest girl.  Working with her has been perfect as she has just ended kindergarten and is getting ready for first grade.  Let me tell you, there are some amazing products and ideas for teaching this age group on Teachers Pay Teachers!  I have to use great restraint to not purchase everything I see.

We have had many rainy days and super, intense storms here in my neck of the woods which have led to many days spent indoors.  And, while that is a bummer, it is allowed me to be super productive in getting ready for my first year teaching kindergarten.  But before I show you what I have been working on, take a look at these spectacular clouds left over from one of our last storms.

In college, I relaxed by making felt board characters for retelling stories.  So, these rainy days have allowed me to make many more characters.  I just realized my camera is not working, so I will have to post more pictures of the complete sets- but here you go!  

Pinkalicious

If you Give a Mouse a Cookie

I also am working on a Pete the Cat set.  I am having way too much fun!

In addition to my felt board craftivities, I have also been working on my classroom decorations.  I am absolutely in love with my classroom alphabet posters.  Here is a sneak peak- as they will be available on TPT in the upcoming weeks.

For this project I played with some of my own clip art and borders, as well as using borders, clip art, and font from mycutegraphics.com, Rowdy In Room 300, and Ms. Fultz's Corner.  Check out what they have!

When I am done creating my classroom decoration sets, it will all be available on my TPT store.  It will have pretty much everything you need to get a good start in your classroom!  (Name plates, number cards, the above alphabet posters, etc!)  

But, what I do have for you today is a FREEBIE!  I finished my word wall headings last night and am just too excited about them to wait.  I received quite a bit of help from my boyfriend in figuring out Adobe Illustrator so that I could create my own borders.  You will see them in these headings.  Please note that I did not create the page sized borders.  My borders are the polka dot circle borders that are used for the actual headings!  Click on the picture to get your free download!

Enjoy!

-Heidi

Last Day of Third Grade

    Friday was our last day of school, and it also marked my last day as a third grade teacher.  It was very much bitter sweet.  I shed a few tears as we all waved the kids goodbye, and a few more were shed as I walked away from my completely packed up and empty classroom.  As much as I will miss my third graders, I am looking forward to my new position as a kindergarten teacher.  My new team and I have already started talking about next year's plans, and my head has been spinning with new classroom arrangements and themes.  But before I get too far ahead, I wanted to share with you what my class has been up to.

    The study of folktales was our last reading unit of the year.  The kiddos, and myself, greatly enjoyed these stories.  We spent a couple of weeks learning about the different types of folktales- how to recognize them and what specific elements would be included within the stories.  We even tried writing our own adaptations of fairy tales.  Those stories were so fun!  My kiddos did a great job.  The students' final project was to create a brochure on a folktale of choice that included lessons learned, character traits, discussion questions (with an answer key), important events, and pictures.  Each student did such a great job with this project.  They worked hard and the final projects were breathtaking.

   I was really impressed with how hard my students worked.  This particular student, took a lot of time coming up with a lesson that could be learned from Cinderella.  She came up with the conclusion that "we need to be nice to people or we will get our revenge."  She even had lots of proof from the text to support her lesson!

   

   Our final big project of the year was a thank you gift to our parents.  I always struggle with how to handle Mother's Day and Father's Day.  My district's students are never in school during Father's Day, so usually Mother's Day is celebrated but then Father's day is not.  This year I decided to try something new.  The kids and I talked about how to handle this situation, and it was decided that we would try to do a combination gift for our parents.  I loved how they turned out!

  We spent a couple days talking about how important our parents are and all of the wonderful things they do for us: cooking, cleaning, driving us places, etc.  It was then mentioned, by a student, that parents do all of these things because they love us! I think this is a lesson that most of us learn after high school, and honestly, for most of these kiddos maybe it won't even stick or make an impression of just how lucky we all are to have someone that supports us.  But, it is never a bad thing to remind them of that.  

    After brainstorming ideas, the kiddos wrote a letter to their parents thanking them for specifics to their lives.  I had so much fun reading these letters.  They were heart-felt and honest. One of my favorite lines from a letter said "Thank you for always putting me first even when you could have done other things like becoming the president!"  AAA!!!  Isn't that sweet?  

   These letters were handwritten, decorated, and then laminated.  We didn't stop there!  Students decorated mini flower pots, planted a flower and put together a bookmark for their parents.  It was so fun, and the students were so excited to bring these home and give them as a gift.  Take a look at how nice these parent projects turned out!

One of the decorated pots.  Unfortunately, I was not on top of things,
and the flowers were not growing yet when the kiddos brought them home.  

Student thank you letter and poem bookmark.  We included
a student photo on the back of the book mark.

    The poem bookmarks are available in my TPT store.  They are a FREEBIE!  I did spend a lot of time writing this poem, so please don't take credit for yourself.  Thank you!

Have a wonderful summer!

-Heidi

Student Teacher Gifts

Our latest sharing topic during morning meeting asked students to share a super power they most wanted.  My most desired super power would be the ability to slow down time.  There is so much to do and never enough time to complete everything!  I am sure this is something only I have experienced, right? ;)  

What would I do with more time?  I would most likely find the time to make cutesy crafts or create fun units for my kiddos.  And lucky me, I had that opportunity this past week: a cutesy craft and a project for the class!

It was time to say goodbye to our clinical student from a nearby university.  She had been with us for an entire semester, so it was kind of a sad morning for my third grade friends.  We did what we could and made her not one, but TWO gifts!  The first one was a class book in which each student wrote why our clinical student teacher will make a great teacher.  The second one was this...

This pot was a gem found from the Crafty Valentine Girl's blogspot.  We all had so much fun making this over the course of two days.  Each student thumb printed the pot with ceramic paint, and the next day they added the cute details (and their names) with a ceramic pen.  Super, super cute!  Makes me kind of wish I could just have them make one for me!

Check out the original post here at http://craftyvalentinegirl.blogspot.com.

Enjoy!  

-Heidi

SALE!

Check out my TPT store May 6th and May 7th.  All of my products will be 20% off!  A great way to stock up before the next school year! 

Click on the image above to be linked to my store!

If I could have any unique animal it would be...

It has been a crAzy week!  Today was the first day of our spring break, so as you can imagine, there was a lot of excitement yesterday.  And, lots of excitement calls for a change of pace.  

We have been working super hard on opinion and persuasive writing.  The kiddos have written and given speeches, written letters, and most recently they have been writing petitions.  For this last day before break we needed some fun.  I gave the students this task:

If you could have any unique, made-up, or weird animal, what would it be?

Create this animal by using construction paper.  However, paper can only be torn!  No scissors allowed.  Once your creature is created, you need to create an advertisement convincing your audience that they need your animal.  What would it do?  Why would somebody want this animal?  Your advertisement needs to have the following parts...

1. Bold, brave thesis statement

2. Reasons and explanations why this animal is needed

3. A heart-string story- to evoke the emotions of audience

This activity was so much fun.  For an entire hour, the room was filled with laughter, smiles, enthusiasm, and excitement.  And the best part?  The kiddos were so proud of their work.  They wanted their writing to be read and to show off their creatures to everyone!  I could have put up all 24 projects because they are just so darn cute, but I selected a few favorites to share with you!  Enjoy!

I will leave you with this last image.  My two pesky cats did not want me working on school this afternoon.  It was almost as if they were saying "It is spring break.  No school work for you!"

Happy Easter~

Heidi

Aging... It has been confirmed

In high school I was always told how young I look.  And, I knew that I should appreciate that.  I knew that eventually I would reach a point where that might not be the case.  Well little did I know, that point would hit in my mid-twenties.  Even 3 years ago- as I was student teaching and graduating college, people would look at me and say "Boy!  I really thought you were 18!"  

So last year, I began to notice that I didn't get that type of compliment anymore.  And, honestly, as much as I love teaching and working with kids, I can definitely feel that I am older because of it.  Well, this was all confirmed today when a dear student of mine looked at me and asked; "Ms. T?  When are you going to retire?"

It was all I could do not to laugh as I tried to say with a straight face "hmmmm... well, I am only 26 so I guess not for 30 more years!"

Ha!  Gotta love 3rd Grade!

Spring? Are you here yet?

On Friday, we woke up to snow.  No lie, April 4th brought us a spring snow storm.  Luckily it was melted and gone by the afternoon.  The kiddos and teachers alike are all going stir-crazy!  It is time for the weather to remember what month it is!

In honor of (fingers crossed) spring, and our spring break next week, I am offering a freebie: the "Jelly Bean Apostrophe" practice page.

Last week we read Greedy Apostrophe by Jan Carr and Ethan Long.  I just love this book.  The kids really get into it- especially if you let yourself go a little crazy with expression!  This book follows an apostrophe who is rather selfish.  He turns every noun that has an "s" into a possessive.  By the end of the book the kids have a good grasp of when to use an apostrophe and when not to use an apostrophe.  

Please head on over to my TPT store to download this practice activity! It is bound to make you and your students think "spring!"

Math Mountains

My district began a new math series this past year- and the kiddos are really doing some fantastic things.  The types of problems they are able to solve in 3rd grade is incredible.  I mean really, my kiddos understand how to solve problems with variables.  I even have students who are able to read a story problem such as: 

The dance studio has 3 classes with 10 students in each class.  If all of the students were put into 5 groups, how many students would be in each group? (ok, maybe not the best problem) 

Then, they can take that problem and write an equation to solve it.  Most of their equations without any help end up looking like this:  (3 x 10) / 5 = 6. 

WOW!

Now, don't get me wrong, word problems can still stump them.  But whoever created Math Mountains was brilliant.  All of my learners, including those who really struggle, have success when they use a Math Mountain.  They only have to ask themselves "Do I have a total?" or "Do I only have addends?"  Then, once they answer those questions and fill in the math mountain they know whether or not they need to add, subtract, multiply, or divide.

Obviously they do a little more thinking than that because they need to actually determine what is going on in the problem.  I am just so impressed with this tool!

Here are the anchor charts that are posted in my classroom.  And my favorite part about these is that the kids told me word for word what to write in the middle.

Enjoy!
            

My artwork on the anchor charts reflects my current feelings on the weather. I think I have given up on our weather ever becoming normal again!  While tomorrow we are finally supposed to get up to 60 degrees, it is supposed to snow again Monday and Tuesday.  What's up with that?!?